PSL: Reviewing PSL Logos

A host of campaigns are created for the different brands present in the market, yet very few leave their mark on the masses with their brilliant concept, immaculate execution and superb visual strategy.

HBL PSL, the first franchise sports model of its kind in the Pakistani market, recently made a remarkably strong impression in the hearts and minds of the nation. In this Labtest, we got marketers including professionals gathered on the Facebook group, Khalid Alvi Marketing Next, to analyze the team logos that made PSL such a phenomenon.

What is your first impression of the PSL team logos?

Inspired from design aesthetics of international premier sports leagues, I loved the overall feel and the energy all logos create. I do hope though that next time they can be more regionalized and nationalized that makes PSL stand out, distinctively.

What are your comments on the color themes chosen for the logos?

Although I believe that it is unjustifiable to limit our cities with such thriving cultures, traditions and landscapes to a color. Yet, giving a color to a team that belongs to city is a contextually different exercise.

Most of the PSL logos are designed using red and blue color families with yellow as the secondary color. There is a range of colors that could have been used and the entire tournament could have had a very vibrant feel to it if the color scheme was chosen keeping all the teams collectively in mind rather than the individual and independent approach that was taken. A general theme in association to landscape, architecture, handicrafts, cultural events, or any other element that can establish connect with the city can be used, with the color chosen accordingly. With time, people would start associating those team colors with the cities. Also, distinct logos and color schemes help teams and fans standout from the crowd.

Are the PSL team logos culturally or geographically relevant?

Although Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi did pick out team names representing sentiments from the cultural context, it depends on themes the teams choose to identify themselves with. It’s not important for them to be geographically or culturally relevant.

If you were shown these logos randomly without being told these were for cricket teams, what would your assumption be?

If you were shown Apple’s logo before it became a world phenomenon, would you have thought it was a tech company?

Logos are a symbol or an emblem used to identify a service, a company or any form of organization. There is always a context behind them. Generally, the logos are nice but can be improved in the future as the PSL franchise grows.

“All the PSL logos are well executed with evocative, distinctive and smartly done design to incorporate cricketing elements.”

Laudable: Use of Urdu tagline.Disappointing: The logo is devoid of personality. A roaring lion with a glint in its eye? Impressive, but that’s as far as it goes. I think that the lack of any element that might link the logo to Karachi is more a fault of the title (Karachi Kings), so I won’t blame that on the design. Yet, there is no symbolization in the logo that shows it representing a Cricket team.

“Using ‘Zalmi”, a Pashto term, is commendable in the city’s team title.”

“It seems appropriate that the team title and tagline are in English.”

“I really admire the use of a local term (Qalandar) in their team title.”

“Impressive: Use of Urdu tagline.”

“The team logos look decent and I love how every team has worked on its branding separately.”

The logo is clean, minimalistic and compact with a highly prominent team title.
Using the color royal blue and gold in the logo gives it a feel of royalty while the roaring lion shows force.
Has the charisma and fluidity associated with the best logos in the world, even if it does not symbolize cricket.
Personal ranking: Best of the five.

The logo is neat and minimalistic with a very subtle color scheme that allows the team title comes out very well.
Conceptually combining wickets into the turban was sheer poetry.
Amongst all, the Zalmi logo is the most relevant to cricket and the Peshawar culture, with all visuals working in good harmony.
Personal rating: Only second to the best, yet it stands out on its own.

The logo is very rich in detail.
Using yellow and orange gives a lot of energy to the logo, but the team title is lost in the loud colors.
Personal rating: Somewhere in the middle.

The logo is attractive at first glance and the use of the color red lends energy to it.
The usage of a Turkish Sufi (whirling dervish) as a Qalandar is a contradictory rather poor choice.Relevant culturally and relates to the sport.
Personal rating: Only better than Quetta Gladiators.

The bold color combination is very strong with a compact logo design.
Gives a clear feel for cricket, but does not relate to the culture or geography of Quetta in any way.
The world ‘Gladiators’ is not very legible.
Personal rating: Worst of the five.

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